[Military Vs. Va Rating]

My husband had just the opposite done. He was TDRL from AF 50% but the VA gave him 10%.

This was before we met and was 25 yrs. ago. He just recently got his SMR(yesterday) and I

read through it this morning and according to the " General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders"

he should have been rated at least at 70%. Is it way too late to do anything about this?

Does the VA not go by SMR's?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Primary Care Dr.]

My husband is very upset with his primary care dr. for many reasons 1. about his toe problem

2. she seems to think she is not only a medical dr., but more importantly a cardiologist and

phychiatrist. and most recently today actully he really needed his nitro(he was having chest pains

and so forth) and he sees a cardiologist on the outside (thank goodness) who prescibed him nitro

and plavix, he took these prescriptions to the people at the desk to hand in to the dr. for filling and

they gave him a form for his cardiologist to fill out and fax in. That is what he was told to do and that

is what we did. He e-mailed his primary care dr today and she sent him back a different way to

handle this, which he was not told by the desk people. Anyway after his next app. with her, he would

like to swith drs. How can he do this and can it be on a different team? Should it be at a different

facility all together? He wanted to stay at this facility because he also works there which makes it

easier.

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Would Like To Become A Part-time So]

Bound4heaven,

My husband too has had nothing but a bad time with his current so, which is AL. He met the guy and

all he was interested in was having him attend the Church that he attends. He went to DAV and the

guy that he would be assigned to was VERY much not interested in helping either. He does not know

where to turn next. I posted a message for information on so's in Columbia, SC area before I read

your message. If you know where he can turn next please let us know.

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Service Officer]

Does anyone one know of a good service officer in the Columbia, South Carolina area?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Military Vs. Va Rating]

If the military places you on TDRL with a 50% rating, does the VA also have to rate you at 50% or

do they have different ratings for the same disability?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Berta]

Oops, never mind I found it....

sbrewer

[Berta]

Berta,

Could you please post the link for Dr. Bash. I can't seem to find it.

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Berta]

Berta,

Not only is the toe unable to bend, but he is still in the same pain that he was in before he had surgery

With the pain of course he has to take Tramadol(sometimes more then one). When he does this he

gets "whozzy". He told his primary care dr. this, so she then prescribed an anti-inflammatory med

which does nothing for him. She just does not want to go against another dr. I guess, because she

examined the toe (he even went to urgent care with it a couple of times). She will not write him

a note on it and of course the podiatrist will not respond at all. Anyway thanks again for your wisdom.

sbrewer

[Berta]

Berta,

My husband filed an 1151 claim for his toe. The podiatrist operated on it and now it will not bend and

the podiatrist will not respond to him at all (even way before the claim was filed). The claim was

denied and the AL representative told him to get his primary care dr to write a statement for him

that the toe would bend before surgery. He contacted her(primary care dr.) and she told him to

contact the poditrist. He again e-mailed the guy and he read the message but of course will not

respond. The AL rep. said that he could get me(his wife) and our daughter to write statements that

the toe would bend. Finally here's the question....would our writing statements carry any wait??

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Mental Health Increase?]

Hi,

What would happen if you put in a claim for an increase for a mental health disability? Would you

have a C&P exam or would they use notes from your mental health dr? Or would they send you

to a different dr for an examination?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Berta,

Thanks again for your response. I wasn't sure if on that a person would have to have all criteria under

the categories or not, however I think I understand it better now. I hate to keep asking what I'm sure

to some are stupid questions, but when you don't know I guess you should ask.

Thanks again,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Thanks again Berta for the information.

Alex,

Someone else had told me also that they did not go by the mild, moderate, etc., however,

how many of the symptoms in a category do you have to have to fall into that particular catagory.

Example....if you had flattened affect, would this put you in the 50% cat. or if you had tried to

commit suicide, would that automoatically put you in the 70% cat? Or do you need all of the

listings in each category?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Berta,

Sorry for the confusion but "This shrink you mentioned sounds very biased against vets- "

The shrink he sees is a Psychologist, the MD I referred to is actually his primary care dr at the VA.

She seems to think she is MORE than a primary care dr. example...she thinks she can be his shrink,

as well as his cardiologist. She finally sent him to the "shrink" and he has an outside cardiologist.

He too works at the VA...Also his primary care dr. is the one who does not want to write him a note

that his toe would bend before she sent him to the podiatrist, who did the surgery, and now the toe

will not bend and he still has the pain he had before the surgery.

Do you know what happened to the other post from dancanmt?

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Am I missing something?

I went back to re-read my post and the responses and some are missing.

The ones from, at least I thought, it was dancanmt. Did something happen to this?

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Few more questions...

I went back and read the response from Berta again and forgot to ask

Is a Psychologist an MD or PHD? MD stands for Medical Doctor what does PHD stand for? His dr.

for mental health is a Psychologist, so would her statement not be enough? He does have a MD

at the VA also, but she seems to be just paying her dues(for her education). She actually told him

a while back that she was tired of all the veterans trying to get service connected, so she would be of

no help. He may try to get a different dr. because of another issue with this same dr.(about his toe)

She will not write him a statement that his toe would bend before she sent him to Podiatrist, who did

surgery and now the toe will not bend. She told him he needed to talk back to the Pod. and he will

not give him the time of day.

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Thanks everyone for the valuble information.

I know I keep asking silly questions, but he can't seem to find a decent VSO here either.

I did also talk to Patrick on the other site and he told me how they rate the depression as in

mild, moderate and so forth.

Again thanks so much,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Thanks Berta,

I did not know what the dr. meant by" major depression". She said my husband was mis diagnosed 25 yrs

ago and should have been major depression. I don't know why she said this but, I asked him if he was

going to put in for an increase and he said that he thought he would either have to be unemployed or

in the hospital to do so . He is currently 10%. Long story but he just started going back to dr(the VA

said they had lost him) and anyway that's when she said he had "major depression".

She also told him to put in a claim for heart disease as depression caused it.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Levels Of Depression]

Is there a definition for different levels of depression?

As in minor depression or major depression or whatever.

thanks,

sbrewer

[Dav]

Does this sound odd? My husband has a meeting with one Saturday at McDonald's...

I thought they had offices.

sbrewer

[Gaf?]

Has the GAF score been around for a long time, say 20 yrs ago, or is this something fairly knew?

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Dav]

If you choose to have the DAV or American Legion represent you, can you choose who in the

oganization you want or are they appointed to you?

thanks,

sbrewer

[Strange Letter Received]

Hi All,

He found out today that the letter was where he requested his Claims folder from the VA regoinal office

Thanks,

sbrewer

[Strange Letter Received]

He has not filed a CUE. I asked that the other day and from what I read that would not be a CUE

claim. He has not filed for an increase or anything. I guess they'll let him know more later. Just

seemed odd that this came today, and he saw a new dr. last week who said what she said.

thanks,

sbrewer

[Strange Letter Received]

Hi,

My husband received a letter from the VA today that says "We have received your application for

benefits." blah blah blah....He already recieves benefits at 10% sc. He did go last week to a new

Phyciatrist who (as I stated in an earleir post under CUE Claim?) said he was diagnosed wrong to

start with..My question is...a dr. does not put in for an increase do they? Don't the vet have to do that?

thanks,

sbrewer

[Cue Claim?]

Thanks everyone for the information.

sbrewer